We hope the era of government reform that should be a hallmark of the incoming Obama Administration and the new Congress will include reforming the Congressional Internet Caucus.
For too long, the Caucus agenda has been under the influence of the “Advisory Committee to the Congressional Internet Caucus.” This is not an independent group–but one with connections deep into the Silicon Valley and communications business. Last week’s annual State of the ‘Net Congressional Caucus meeting was funded by “platinum sponsors” Google, Microsoft, and Verizon. The “gold sponsors” were AT&T, the Center for Democracy and Technology (which is funded by many of these same corporations), CTIA (The Wireless Association), and VeriSign. “Notepads” were provided by the Hunton & Williams law firm; “Laynards” were paid for by Juniper Networks. “Coffee Breaks” paid for by the National Cable and Telecommunications Association. Qwest provided “bags.” The Venable law firm gave out the “travel coffee mugs.’
As always, the agenda of the meeting was purposefully narrow, to help ensure none of the corporate sponsors would be seriously challenged. Broadband policy is too important an issue to be left in the hands of a few well-funded DC insiders.
